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| In Retrospect: Past Oberlin Bonners
Reflect on Their Experiences |
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by Anne C. Paine
March 14, 2003 |
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When first-year students choose to
participate in the Bonner Scholars Program, the benefits
uppermost in their minds probably are the scholarship
involved and the opportunity to continue or begin community
service work rather than take a traditional work-study
job.
Other positives of the program come into focus later.
The chance to learn about different career fields, to
help strengthen the local community, to build a strong
resume, and to achieve balance and perspective in life—these
are just some aspects of the program that help lead students
to success.
Here, some Oberlin Bonner alumni talk about their experiences
in the program.
Hilda Fehd '02 graduated with a major in psychology
and is now a research assistant in Princeton University's
psychology department. The lab in which she works uses
fMRI brain imaging techniques to study vision and attention.
Her Bonner placements included positions at the Oberlin
Boys and Girls Club, Oberlin Community Services, and the
Firelands Association for the Visual Arts.
 "I
had a strong service history before college and I would
have been very disappointed to end that part of my life
at college because I had to do work study. The program's
fantastic because Bonners are dependable, free labor
for great nonprofits that really need dedicated help.
I learned so much about the Oberlin community from interacting
with people that I wouldn‘t have seen otherwise.
What I enjoyed most about being a Bonner was getting
to know the wonderful people at my work sites. Being
a Bonner helped me graduate in that it gave me an escape
from the scholastic life, so that I didn't overdose
on studying."
Kyl Dinsio '00, a neuroscience
major at Oberlin, is a first-year medical student at Case
Western Reserve University. She spent all of her time
as a Bonner scholar working at the Lorain County Free
Clinic (LCFC). By the time she graduated, she had helped
open satellite clinics in Oberlin and Elyria, which she
went on to supervise.
 "Working
at the LCFC exposed me in a very direct way to the plight
of the working poor and uninsured in our community and
our country, and that made a major impact on me. In
addition, I interacted with the volunteer doctors and
nurses who worked full-time jobs and sacrificed rest
and time with their families to serve the LCFC clientele.
The experiences that I had at the LCFC convinced me
that I wanted to be a physician.
"As Bonners working in the community, we were constantly
confronted with our own privilege and, while we didn't
feel very privileged in comparison to our peers, we
knew that we really had a lot to be thankful for. Very
few people on campus besides the Bonners have these
kinds of experiences routinely, and there were few people
with whom I could share these kinds of observations
besides them."
Shannon Hall '97 is a second-year
law student at the American University in Washington,
D.C. She worked for four years as a Bonner student at
the Lorain County Rape Crisis Center, where she did legal
and hospital advocacy, facilitated a support group, gave
educational talks, worked on outreach projects, and researched
police interviewing methods. As an undergraduate, she
was a politics major.
 "My
Bonner placement was important to me for a variety of
reasons. First, unlike wealthier students, I had few
opportunities to intern during the summer, since I had
to seek paying jobs. My Bonner placement was therefore
important in building resume and career experience.
It was my first exposure to the criminal justice field,
an area I am pursuing to this day.
"My placement was also important to my spiritual
growth. The wonderful staff and volunteers at the rape
crisis center substantially contributed to increasing
my sense of confidence and competence.
"Many of my closest friends from Oberlin were Bonner
scholars. These are the students with whom I have largely
stayed in touch."
Akbar A. Keshodkar '96, a biology major at Oberlin,
is in his final year of study for the PhD degree in social
anthropology at Linacre College, part of the University
of Oxford. As a Bonner student, he worked at the Oberlin
Early Childhood Center and the Hot Meals program.
"The Bonner program
instilled a strong attitude toward community service.
I participated in community service activities before
coming to Oberlin, but after participating in the Bonner
program, I developed an understanding of community service
at the levels of participation, organization, advocacy,
and leadership. It strongly contributed to my personal
and intellectual development at Oberlin and beyond.
"Working through the Bonner program helped me develop
a high level of compassion and a stronger sense of humanity.
In the pampered halls of academia, it exposed me to
the harshness and realities of lives led by so many
on the other side of Tappan Square. It provided me with
a better understanding of how fortunate I was to have
the opportunity to pursue higher education at a prestigious
institution, something inaccessible to so many that
I served while at Oberlin.
"Participation in the program also helped me get
away from Oberlin College when I needed it most, and
in the process, maintain my sanity and composure to
deal with the academic pressures and social environment
of college."
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Zakia Redd '97 received the MPP degree from the
Georgetown Public Policy Institute in 2000 and is now
a senior research analyst at Child Trends, a national,
nonprofit, nonpartisian organization dedicated to improving
the lives of children and families through research. Her
research focuses on youth-development programs, education,
welfare, and poverty. Her Bonner placements included leadership
positions at Shule Ya Kesho, a Saturday school for African
American children in the community. At Oberlin, she majored
in African American studies.
 "The
Bonner program helped provide me with a sense of economic
security as a low-income student. It provided me opportunities
to explore fields in which I was interested. Most nonprofit
organizations needed and accepted as many student volunteers
as they could get, so I was not usually turned down
from working at any place that interested me. The program
also helped me as I applied for jobs and for graduate
school. I was interested in nonprofit-sector studies
and wrote my graduate school essay about coordinating
the Shule Ya Kesho program. I am not sure I would have
had the time to dedicate to such a position if I were
working another job as well."
Oshon Lake Temple '01 teaches seventh-grade biology
and eighth-grade mathematics at De La Salle Academy, a
private, independent, nonsectarian middle school in Manhattan
for academically talented, economically disadvantaged
students. A mathematics major, Temple confirmed his interest
in teaching through his work in the Bonner program. He
volunteered in all of Oberlin's public schools, and in
his junior and senior years, he co-taught a Community
Service Course at the high school and a General Education
Development (GED) class for adults.
 "The
Bonner program was important to me because it enabled
me to continue doing community service in college, something
that I enjoyed since high school. The program offers
a sense of community and provides low-income students
the opportunity to do community service in a thoughtful
way that takes into consideration the effect of the
program on the constituencies it serves. It challenges
the assumption that only the rich should do community
service as a way of becoming sensitized and educated
about their privilege. As a group we examined the politics
of service and were forced to grow as we individually
and collectively struggled with the uniqueness of our
experiences."
After graduating from Oberlin, Danielle Witherspoon
'01 worked as a national hunger fellow at the Congressional
Hunger Center, a position that built upon her work as
a Bonner intern with the Lorain County Children and Families
Council. A Spanish major with minors in Jewish studies
and English, she is now studying on a fellowship for her
master's degree in medieval Jewish studies at the Jewish
Theological Seminary of America in New York. She plans
to pursue the PhD degree there as well.
 "Bonner
is in its essence different from other programs, which
have a tendency to see people in the larger community
as ‘other.' In the BSP, most of us were from low-income
backgrounds, working with the same community in Lorain
County and elsewhere, so there was a fundamental identification
between the students and the community work.
"Bonner gave me a lot of confidence about what
I could achieve. Pursuing a graduate degree in an academic
field, when one is from a working-class background,
is often seen as a risk. (Why are you studying more
instead of making money?) Bonner helped me to understand
what resources are available to me in the larger academic
sense.
"I appreciate beyond words all the time and money
others have invested in my education. I received the
Robinson Scholarship during my last two years at Oberlin.
I want people like Bill Robinson (donor of the scholarship
fund) and the Bonner Foundation to know how much they
have impacted my life. Every day I do my best to enrich
their legacies in the same way that they have allowed
for so much enrichment in my life."
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Wynne Wu '98, who holds a master
of arts degree from New York University, is an instructor
of Chinese at Bard High School Early College, associated
with Bard College. A double-degree student, she majored
in East Asian studies and piano performance at Oberlin.
Her Bonner placements utilized her musical talents: she
accompanied the Oberlin Choristers and a local dance group,
and she gave free piano lessons at the Oberlin Seventh
Day Adventist Church. She also worked in the Oberlin Community
Services tutoring program.
"The Bonner program
enabled me to perform meaningful community service without
having to worry about working as well. I was able to
use my skills in a variety of ways—from tutoring
children in math to providing piano accompaniment for
a local dance company. They were all valuable forms
of experience. The Bonner program was definitely an
advantage, and it was by far more fulfilling than working
at Dascomb. In some ways, it helped me build the foundation
for my current career—teaching."
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